President Donald Trump has announced that he has reached a deal that will open the federal government for three weeks, until February 15. This means that the president has landed the ball firmly back in the Democrats’ court. Trump has asked Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) to hold an immediate vote.

Should leading Dems decide to backtrack on their commitments to negotiate after this, does it leave the president wide open to declare the national emergency he has been threatening all along? And is he right to do so?

Already Agreed?

In a move that stunned almost everyone, the president spoke as if the Democrats in Congress had already agreed to his proposal. “Walls should not be controversial,” the president announced before citing Israel’s success in reducing illegal immigration. “No security plan works without a wall, it just doesn’t happen.”

…one side is playing checkers while the other plays chess.

Trump then went on to reiterate the act that he proposed last week, focusing on criminal enterprises, human traffickers, and the dangers of coyotes running with impunity through places that are not legal points of entry. He painted a vivid picture of bad people duct taping women and transporting these abused souls, racing across the desert.

Reactions

Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA), speaking with CBSN, was not convinced that the president would ultimately be successful. He said the possibility of another lengthy shutdown would show that Trump had not “learned the lesson and the pain of the last 35 days.”

When asked whether he would back a bill that provided funding for an actual wall, Swalwell’s answer was short and to the point: No. And this will be the likely reaction of many Democrats. Some will speculate that President Trump has folded on the issue of border security and that the most he can hope for is another lengthy shutdown that eats away at his fragile approval ratings. But this ignores the fact that one side is playing checkers while the other plays chess.

Put Up or Shut Up

Behind this deal is a clear threat. The president talked pointedly about the exact crime numbers, the costs – both financial and human – of illegal immigration, the drugs that kill more than 70,000 Americans a year … he not-so-subtly called this a “National Emergency.”

Trump stated that if a wall is not forthcoming, he would either look at shutting down the government once again, or go for a more “nuclear” option.

The situation is very, very clear. If Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Chuck Schumer (D-NY) don’t get behind Trump on the border wall, he will declare this a national emergency and build it anyway. The only question remaining is whether the recalcitrant Democrats can understand it.

5 Comments

Jules P. Guidry

Good article, Mark.
What caught my attention was the statement from Swalwell(D-CA). Everytime I see or hear this smarmy commie open his mouth, I am not surprised by anything which he spews. He is another one of the willfully ignorant leftists who can’t see beyond his commie ideology to notice what the POTUS attempting to do for the legal American citizens. All the while Swalwell is ignoring the facts and figures which point out the harm not having a wall/physical barrier is doing to our nation. A typical ideological leftist. This is the same guy that said he would propose nukeing folks who wouldn’t give up their guns if a confiscatory law was passed. Think about that for just a minute. Nuts, that’s what he is.
I agree with you on the checkers and chess comparison. I carry it a step or two further. Trump is playing 4D chess, while the left is contemplating which checker piece to move at all.
Yes, I support President Donald J. Trump and any actions he takes to shut down the illegal entry of anyone into this nation. Including closing the border completely. Using troops if necessary for the entire length to ensure our soverignity. Also favor deportation of illegals to begin at the same time. Clean sweep, fore and aft.
Maybe its just me.

mlopez

I have made every excuse I possibly could for Trump and now, three years in, I realize he simply doesn’t understand the nature of the struggle. He probably never will. He may be perfectly suited for mud wrestling with Rosie O”Donnell, but he has shown himself to be totally unsuited to save America.

He is a fabulously successful executive whose real life experience hasn’t prepared him to make the stretch, to bridge the gap between being a good man with a vision to becoming a great man who can execute, or accomplish what needs to be done. He has failed us utterly and more importantly, he simply isn’t learning. He doesn’t understand he is losing and, if you bother to think about it, that makes him the perfect loser.

If one thinks about it for a moment longer, it all becomes perfectly understandable. He was a business major. He never read, nor studied history. He hasn’t read literature and he has never been ideological. He is an executive and as such he is insular and now, as president he finds himself isolated and totally unprepared.

Trump was our last chance. He had it all. He had all the skill sets, the work ethic, the desire to do the right thing. I believe he wanted to save America, one solitary man against the entire world order. He might have just pulled it off too, but as it turns out he appears to be a dollar short and just one day too late. Bye bye, American pie.

Jules P. Guidry

MLopez. Your analysis is way off. And you have no idea whether or not any of it is true. Ya sound like a leftist with a mission to discourage support for the POTUS.
It ain’t over, yet. The leftists, Nasty Nancy and Clown Chuck, in particular, are the ones who have not learned their lessons when dealing with Trump. They forget that he is not a politician, than makes it difficult for them to predict what he will do next.
Usually, the normal repub pol would have folded by now and walked away from the issue. Not happening. Pay attention to what happens in Feb.
Maybe its just me.

lazarus

Great article and I hope Mark is right when he says Trump will declare the NE and build the wall. “Trump: “We Have Reached a Deal.” BUT right now all we have is a Pelosi smile of such largess that it is endangering her ears. In my opinion you never win with these vermin by losing a little and then later trying to get back what you lost. If you do not forever demonstrate a higher determination than these traitors you never get it done and you never get back the millimeters you ceded. That is their kind of “deal”.

Kari Lunger

Mark Angelides is Managing Editor of Liberty Nation.com. Hailing from the UK, he specializes in EU politics and provides a conservative/libertarian voice on all things from across the pond. During the Brexit Referendum campaign, Mark worked to promote activism, spread the message and secure victory. He is the editor and publisher of several books on Ancient Chinese poetry.

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About the author

Mark Angelides is Managing Editor of Liberty Nation.com. Hailing from the UK, he specializes in EU politics and provides a conservative/libertarian voice on all things from across the pond. During the Brexit Referendum campaign, Mark worked to promote activism, spread the message and secure victory. He is the editor and publisher of several books on Ancient Chinese poetry.